


Let It Be

by JamtheDingus



Series: The Witch And The Mage [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Video Game World, Gaming, M/M, MMORPGs, ShunkWeek2k17, Virtual Reality, day one: summer/winter, the elusive gaming au returns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 01:03:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10933746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JamtheDingus/pseuds/JamtheDingus
Summary: Written for Day One of ShunkWeek2k17!hereShiro grinned, tossing him an excited nod. “I can do a lot with my hands.”Lance, from behind them, snorted so hard that his fingers slipped from their positions on the strings and a loud twang vibrated throughout the room.Hunk had never seen Shiro change colors so fast, cheeks a rosy red that blended with the ends of the scar that curved across his nose.





	Let It Be

**Author's Note:**

> i reference frozen somewhere in here i bet u its gonna slap u in the face
> 
> look at these love-struck boys

  _Winter_

A violent shiver coursed up Hunk’s spine as he clutched his mug full of warm cinnamon and apple cider, valiantly trying to warm up his body before he got a tragic ‘game over’ from the cold.

It was a new feature just implemented: weather and temperature changes. Besides rain (which had been a feature already implemented when the game first came out), new types of weather such as hail, snow, and thunderstorms had been added, and even sandstorms in certain biomes.

Hunk had the unfortunate pleasure of being on a server where it was the middle of winter. He’d always hated the cold, and it was just his luck that he spawned in the middle of a snowy field with nothing but his robe and witch’s hat to protect him.

Luckily he’d made it to town just before he’d started to lose health from it.

In front of him loitered most of his team. Lance sat cross-legged in front of the fireplace, fiddling with a lute that sat there, courtesy of the tavern-owner, for whoever felt like playing that day. Though he missed a chord or two, and a few notes were off-key, Lance had a real good chance at making coin from his solo.

Pidge was near him, perched on a barrel that was nestled in the corner between the fireplace and the barkeep’s counter. She, too, sat cross-legged as she studied whatever runes she’d gotten her hands on that week. It was a tedious process with lots of boring words to read in order to gain that skill, but she seemed to enjoy it immensely, if only to torment her friends with unkillable spiders and haunted dreams.

Shiro stood next to Hunk’s chair, playing with magic. Balls of harmless colors juggled from palm to palm, arching high in the air and giving them (and the few patrons that littered the bar) a private light show to enjoy along with Lance’s tunes.

Keith was the only member not present. If anyone hated the cold more than Hunk, it would definitely have to be Keith. As soon as he’d logged on and seen the weather, he promptly logged back out, and furiously typed up a long rant that was mostly keysmashes and the phrase ‘fuck this’ over and over again to each of their private message boxes.

“You sure are getting good at that.” Hunk said to Shiro about his magic display, proud that his teeth only chattered once or twice as he finally got his shivers under control.

The mage gave a half-hearted shrug, nearly dropping the yellow and purple orbs as he lost his rhythm. “I’ve practiced the motions a lot.”

“You can juggle in real life?”

Shiro grinned, tossing him an excited nod. “I can do a lot with my hands.”

Lance, from behind them, snorted so hard that his fingers slipped from their positions on the strings and a loud twang vibrated throughout the room.

Hunk had never seen Shiro change colors so fast, cheeks a rosy red that blended with the ends of the scar that curved across his nose.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” He quickly tried to amend, and Hunk couldn’t help laughing at him.

“Don’t worry about it, I got what you meant.” He consoled, knocking his knuckles against Shiro’s shoulder. “You’ve just been hanging around Lance too much, I think.”

“I’m a wonderful influence, thank _you_ very much.” Lance said, strumming away again as if he’d never stopped. “It’s not my fault lover-boy has no moves of his own.”

“Lance.” Pidge admonished, pushing her copper wire-framed glasses up her nose to give him a look. “Not everyone likes to hop from person to person like you.”

“I resent that!” Lance pouted, though it quickly turned into a smile to match Pidge’s teasing one. “But I’ll give _the lovers_ a reprise.”

His tempo on the lute picked up as he stood, twirling around the room as he hummed lyrics to a nonsensical song, mischievously waggling his eyebrows at the pair of them.

A soft ping alerted Hunk that his temperature was no longer in the danger zone, and he shooed Lance away to offer his hand to Shiro.

“C’mere before you turn into a tomato.” He teased, borrowed blanket bunching on the stool as he pushed it from his shoulders, tugging Shiro into a stand.

Pidge and Lance wolf whistled as they scampered out the door, leaving sparse laughter from the other patrons in their wake.

They found themselves sitting on the back porch of the tavern, leaning against the snow dusted railing to watch the near-empty road that lead towards the stables. Hunk shivered again, huffing so that a cloud of his breath plumed out in front of his face.

Bits of straw lined the corners of the balcony, crunching beneath their boots, and Hunk had no clue how it had gotten so far up here, when hay barrels were far around the corner. Just a mystery of life, probably. And Hunk wasn’t really in the mood for a headache from pondering unanswerable questions at the moment.

He turned to Shiro instead, whose blush had faded to look less like embarrassment and more like he’d been kissed upon the nose and cheeks by an ice queen.

He looked happy, though, with the way his head was tilted back up to the sky, snowflakes softly resting against his eyelids and melting into his eyelashes, adding a pretty highlight to Shiro’s already pretty face.

Hunk stepped towards him, sliding his hand down Shiro’s arm to place his hand over Shiro’s prosthetic one. The metal was cold, but Hunk could feel the whir of the machinery as it worked to keep it from freezing in place. It was always such an interesting piece of technology that Hunk wanted to study for hours at a time. Even if it wasn’t real, per say, whoever had designed its code for the game was a genius.

“Hunk?” Shiro asked, and said witch’s eyes darted to his face to find Shiro’s staring intently at him.

“Oh, uh… repeat that for me?”

Shiro smiled as he tangled his fingers in the ones that rested just above his own. “I asked if you were cold again.”

“Pfft.” Hunk huffed, rolling his eyes. “I’ll live.” With a slight pause, his body went rigid as he checked his stats on a different screen before it moved more naturally again. “For at least twenty minutes.”

At that, Shiro hummed, bringing their joined hands to his mouth to press a kiss against his fingers. It sent a shiver through Hunk’s body for an entirely different reason, and he didn’t find himself minding the clinking of his teeth this time. “Good.”

“Good?”

“I like to spend time with you. In private, like this.” Shiro murmured, stepping forward to lean against him, head coming to rest against the side of Hunk’s head.

“I like spending time with you, too.” Hunk grinned, about as bright as can be. “We’ll have to do this more often. Just, uh… without the threat of me dying. How are you even standing out here without dying?”

Shiro shrugged. “The cold never bothered me.”

Hunk’s eyes squinted, and Shiro took that as well enough distraction to ghost a kiss across his cheek. “But let’s get inside before you freeze into a Hunkcicle.”

“After you, o chivalrous mage.” Hunk said, ostentatiously swinging his arms towards the door again, voice taking a silly quality he only seemed to get around Shiro and the rest of their ragtime team.

Shiro curtseyed as best he could without a skirt to lift, fluttering his eyelashes like a southern belle, and the two of them laughed harder than the joke deserved as they twirled back through the door they came from.

 

* * *

 

 

_ Summer _

The buzz of virtual cicadas echoed around the group, and a warm breeze burst into the clearing to caress again Shiro’s face like a mother’s gentle hold. Though it was nearing noon, the air around him wasn’t as hot as it could have been, and instead was a pleasant hum that calmed his spirit.

He relaxed even further against the soft bark of the tree than his already boneless form was, leg swinging in a languid motion as he watched the rest of his team run around, enjoying the soft summer heat.

The branch gave him a nice view of them all, and even of the rocky path that lead towards their little hideout.

“Shiro, help! I’m gonna die!” Hunk screamed from below, legs kicking as he tried to keep Lance and his branch full of bugs away. Lance lunged towards him, and a worm flew dangerously close to his nose.

Shiro couldn’t help the snorting laugh that resulted, but he quickly took pity on Hunk’s terrified expression.

“Alright, guys.” He shouted, cupping his hand against his mouth to let it carry towards all of their ears. “Leave him alone!”

“I didn’t do anything!” Keith huffed, and quickly dodged as Lance rounded on him with the stick.

“You want some of this, Mister Tank?”

“Lance, I swear if you- _stop_!”

Pidge had snuck behind Keith with her own weapon: a fistful of beetles that were promptly shoved in his face.

Keith took off in a sprint, and the two of them gave chase with a near-evil cackle.

Hunk quickly darted to the tree, apparently deemed as the safety zone. Shiro still laughed at him from above, and Hunk didn’t hesitate to flip him off. That only made him laugh even harder.

“Yeah, yeah. Yuck it up. You won’t be laughing when I sneak a friendly little critter into your shirt.”

“Oh?” Shiro turned his body to watch as Hunk began to climb the exact same tree he rested in. “And how do you plan to get my shirt _off_?”

Hunk paused, and nearly missed the branch he aimed for. Shiro reacted with a near-full bodied jerk to try and save the mage when Hunk sent him an exasperated look.

“We need to keep you away from Lance.”

“I heard that!” Said thief shouted from across the meadow, having abandoned his stick (almost as soon as Hunk evacuated) to weave flowers into Pidge’s and Keith’s hair. Though the two looked grumpy about it, they sat still as he expertly twisted their hair a fashionable style.

“Good!” Hunk stuck his tongue out, and joined in with the resulting laughter. In a softer tone, he addressed Shiro. “Now, give me your hand.”

“Are you gonna slap a bug in my hand?” Shiro asked, though he did as requested and leaned over, bracing both his legs around the branch to give Hunk a steady hold as he lifted himself to another tree arm that was only a few inches lower than Shiro’s choice of roost.

“I’m still deciding.”

Another laugh from the mage as he pushed his sweaty forelock from his eyes. “Well then, I must do what I can to keep in your good graces.” Shiro didn’t remember the last time he laughed so much when he wasn’t around Hunk.

Hunk hummed, and he gently squeezed their still joined hands. Not another word was added between them as they fell into a soft silence that somehow sent Shiro’s heart racing. He looked below, to his almost-lover, and shivered despite the warmth that surrounded them.

He (along with both Lance and Pidge) had abandoned their overcoats and any undershirts they had almost as soon as they’d found this place. Hunk sat there in nothing more than a plain shirt and the trousers he’d rolled up as far as he could go to escape the heat that he’d immediately deemed to be ‘oppressive’.

He was so _beautiful_ , though, and Shiro had no clue how he was able to do it with so little effort. Yet here he was, head tilted back as he gently hummed a melody, thumb skirting across Shiro’s knuckles as his eyes flickered shut. The smooth slope of skin had Shiro tracing his eyes all across his face, and he found himself wanting to kiss every single dip and curve he saw there. He would have done it, too, if it wouldn’t have caused him to fall the few feet to the unforgiving ground.

“Hey, loverbirds! Keith is gonna roast up some chicken, if you want some!” Pidge called, fingers already fraying the faux-hawk Lance braided for her across half of her head. From behind her, Keith and Lance worked to get a steady flame going in the crude firepit they’d hurriedly built.

“Just give us a tick!” Shiro called back, tossing them a thumbs-up for good measure.

When he turned back to Hunk, their eyes met. For some reason, that sent him into a stuttering mess, and his face flamed as Hunk smiled at him.

“I guess we’d better get down there before they burn down the entire forest, hm?” Hunk said as he slipped his hand from Shiro’s grip, hardly waiting for a response as he began to jump down from branch to branch until he reached the base. “Don’t worry, I’ll catch you if you fall!”

Shiro fondly shook his head. “I’ll hold you to that.”

His descent was much slower, and Hunk was there to wrap his arms around him, even though he’d hardly stumbled a bit upon landing. Their hands found one another, and they gave little thought as to how. It was too easy to just let it be.

And so they let it be.

**Author's Note:**

> i have a tumblr [here](https://jamthedingus.tumblr.com) if u wanna talk to me about things (it's sometimes nsfw)
> 
> shunk week is a little slow starting but I HAVE FAITH. i probably won't be able to do something for most days though because it totally snuck up on me OTL 
> 
> BUT I CAN STILL TRY
> 
> hope you enjoyed! thanks so much for reading <3


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